Identifying and Reducing Environmental Health Risks of Chemicals in Our Society Workshop Summary (2014) / Chapter Skim
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2 The Challenge: Chemicals in Today's Society
2 The Challenge: Chemicals in Today's Society
Pages 5-24
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From page 5... ...
A fundamental notion in dealing with chemical hazards is risk, a concept that has been promulgated extensively by the National Academies, beginning with the 1983 publication Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process (NRC, 1983) , known as the Red Book.
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In just the 25 years between 1970 and 1995, the volume of synthetic organic chemicals produced tripled, from about 50 million tons to approximately 150 million tons (see Figure 2-1) (Goldman, 2002)
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This is an importaant starting point p for undderstanding thhe hazards thhat chemiccals might po ose to the envvironment andd human heallth. It turns ouut, howevver, that this is not an easy question to aanswer.
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Reprinnted with perm mission. Gooldman explaained that thee best availabble estimate ccomes from tthe EPA, which w was taasked by the Toxic T Substannces Control Act (TSCA)
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In 2006, exemptions were expanded when the exemption cutoff for small manufacturers was increased to 25,000 pounds per year at a single site at the time of the report, and petroleum process streams and certain forms of natural gas were exempted from reporting. At the same time, in 2006 some data collection was expanded through the phase-in of reporting of inorganics and new requirements to report on the use of chemicals and production data for the chemicals with the highest production volumes.
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Medical science has shown, for example, that a number of specific chronic diseases are on the rise in the human population despite an overall trend of reduction in chronic disease. For instance, Denison noted that childhood cancers and leukemia are becoming more common (Ward et al., 2014)
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From page 11... ...
The scientific approach to assessing risks has also changed dramatically in the past few decades, Denison said, particularly in the period between the 1983 publication of Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process, known as the Red Book (NRC, 1983) , and the 2009 publication of Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment (NRC, 2009)
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William E Halperin, Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the New Jersey Medical School, described how the field of public health approaches industrial chemicals and industrial chemical assessment.
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There must be a connection between the breast and the uterus which escapes the detection of the prossectors [i.e., dissectors] ." Ramazzini, who is considered the father of occupational medicine, invented occupational epidemiology in that observation that delayed childbirth put a woman at greater risk of certain adverse effects.
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From page 14... ...
"There were literally signs saying there was a suspected carcinogen and that there may well be a problem associated with this plant." The team found out that the suspected carcinogen was toluidine. After performing an incidence study, the team found that people who had been exposed for 10 years had a risk of developing bladder cancer that was 30 times greater than the general population.
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From page 15... ...
It is all of those kinds of things." Secondary prevention refers solely to routine periodic screening with the goal of detecting a disease early while it is easier to treat. And tertiary prevention refers to the range of medical care and health care used to respond to a disease once it appears, from drug treatments and surgery to rehabilitation and accommodation.
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.. Rose calls ffor reducing risk throughout an entiire populationn rather than ffocusing on tthe small percentage p off people within a populatioon who are m most affected bby a partiicular risk.
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w we reassure annd tell theem to go homme. The same is i true if you think about ttoluidine." What W Rose pro oposed was not n only to takke care of thhe people at tthe highesst exposure, but b to shift th he populationn to the left, aas illustrated in Figuree 2-5b.
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From page 18... ...
Sommething similaar is true for cchemical riskks, such as wiith toluidiine. In this case there were some 30,0000 workers with very high occupaational expossure, but theree were tens oof millions off people withh a much lower -- but still hazard dous -- exposuure due to smoking.
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Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, Executive Director of the Children's Environmental Health Network, served as co-chair of the project's leadership council, and she described the National Conversation effort and the Action Agenda it produced to the workshop audience. The underlying rationale behind the project, Witherspoon said, was that the landscape regarding chemicals in the environment had changed considerably over the previous few years.
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From page 20... ...
The Action Agenda was divided into seven chapters, each focused on a single priority topic: prevention, monitoring, science, communities, public engagement, health professionals, and emergencies. Each chapter describes the relevant 2 Further information about the National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures and the final report, Addressing Public Health and Chemical Exposures: An Action Agenda, are available at http://www.national conversation.us (accessed March 31, 2014)
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From page 21... ...
Chapter 1 also has several additional recommendations, explained Witherspoon. They call for increasing the emphasis on public health principles and precaution; developing standard scientific criteria and protocols for applying a precautionary approach to chemicals; strengthening protections of workers' health; ensuring that industrial and federal facilities comply
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From page 22... ...
"The recent IRIS enhancements are intended to improve the scientific foundation of assessments, increase transparency in the program and the process, and allow the agency to produce more IRIS assessments each year. Standard protocols and tools to characterize human exposures across the life cycle of chemical products and across human life stages are also prioritized." Chapter 3 has five additional recommendations as well, explained Witherspoon.
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From page 23... ...
In particular, she added, there seems to be a great deal of interest right now in including environmental considerations into undergraduate, graduate, and health professional curriculum development and training. In addition, the call for TSCA reform is "resonating very loud and clear." In conclusion, Witherspoon said that the National Conversation's Action Agenda offers an effective roadmap for leveraging current partnerships and dealing with the lack of resources available.
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From page 24... ...
Presentation at the Institute of Medicine Workshop on the Identifying and Reducing Environmental Health Risks of Chemicals in Our Society, Washington, DC. IOM (Institute of Medicine)
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